View of Beechgrove Confederate Cemetery from I-24 westbound towards Murfreesboro/Nashville
photo by Sharon Nee Goodman
On one of my trips home I took a drive over to Beech Grove. Besides being one of the most scenic drives in middle Tennessee, it's also the home of a Confederate Cemetery. Overlooking the Beech Grove exit off of I-24, the cemetery sits just off the interstate between I-24 and Highway 41.
From my count of graves, there are 52 Unknown Confederate Soldiers, and only about 4 gravestones that I found with names engraved on them (there may be more, but I didn't see them). Of these gravestones, three of them are within a black, wrought iron fence. The names are J.P. Stephenson, Mary S.A. Stephenson, and Louisa A. Stephenson. Two other gravestones bear the name of Joseph Carney. The original stone is worn and broken and another newer stone has been erected.
Throughout the top of the cemetery hill are piles of rocks that may have been grave houses. I don't know what the piles were for, but there were about 2 dozen seperate piles of rocks. From the literature that I found at the cemetery, it doesn't explain what these piles of rocks were to be used for. If anyone knows the answer, please let me know!
UPDATE: From a fellow genealogist that I know, I received the following email explaining what the piles of rocks are. Here is his email:
"I just visited your website, that part having to do with the Beech Grove Cemetery. I am a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Manchester and Winchester Camps. The Manchester Camp # 72, owns and maintains the cemetery. The stone mounds you saw were pre-War Between the States burial mounds. People were actually buried above ground in these stone cairns. Who they are and other details are lost to time. I have been a member for several years and, to the best of my knowledge, no one has come forward to search for or claim the graves. The unknown confederate graves are those of
men from Confederate units who fought in the area of Beech Grove/Hoovers Gap when the Union Army was making it's drive on Tullahoma. There were other units involved in the battle but only one that I am aware of from the Coffee and Franklin County areas. That is the 17th Tennessee Infantry. Their losses in this battle are unknown to me.
You mentioned, also, the Spencer repeating rifle. This was the first time in warfare that a repeating rifle was used in battle. The men of the 17th had a really bad day.
For further information you can contact Mr. O. B. Wilkinson, <owilk@bellsouth.net>."
Thank you, George, for letting me know about this!!!
Here are the photos that I took while at the cemetery.
Gravestones of JP, Mary SA, and Louisa Stephenson (the stones are in order of the names listed here)
Gravestone of Joseph Carney (new stone) (old stone) (both stones say the same thing, the older one is very worn)
View of Unknown Soldier's gravestones (with Confederate flag) (next to a tree) (view of several gravestones)
View of Memorial with piles of rocks... what are they??
From the Tullahoma News, June 11, 2006:
Special flags ceremony coming to Hoover's Gap on anniversary of battle on June 25
BEECH GROVE The Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association (TCWPA) is sponsoring a project entitled "Two Flags Over Tennessee: Reclaiming Our Civil War Heritage."
The association's twoyear statewide plan is to fly two Civil War-era flags: an 1861 version of the U.S. "Stars and Stripes" featuring 34 stars, and the 11-star, 1861 Confederate "First National" flag, known as the "Stars and Bars," over all of Tennessee's most significant Civil War battlefields.
The U.S. flag will fly over Union battle positions and the First National flag over Confederate battle positions at as many as 50 sites across Tennessee.
The flags program is scheduled to be held beginning at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 25, at Hoover's Gap in Beech Grove in Coffee County, according to Mary Ann Peckham, executive director of the association.
The two-year journey crisscrossing the state will be documented in two large scrapbooks collecting and preserving photographs, letters, and news articles from activities and events at each location.
TCWPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting and interpreting Tennessee's Civil War battlefields for the benefit of present and future generations.
"Two Flags Over Tennessee: Reclaiming our Civil War Heritage" will recognize Tennessee's most important battlefields and emphasize the importance of finding ways to preserve the ground where thousands of American soldiers, wearing both blue and gray, gave their lives for the causes in which they fervently believed, Ms. Peckham said.
She said the flags were first flown in February at Fort Henry on the Tennessee River in observance of the 144th anniversary of that battle.
Since February, the flags have flown at Fort Donelson, Fallen Timbers, on the Memphis Queen Riverboat commemorating the first battle of Memphis on the Mississippi River, and at the Parkers Crossroads Battlefield dedication which was held Saturday.
Ms. Peckham and other members of the TCWPA will join Dr. Michael Bradley of Tullahoma and other local officials, preservationists, and historians to commemorate the anniversary of the 1863 battle at Hoover's Gap.
The public is invited to participate in the free event which will include music, reenactors, a volley of rifle fire and an artillery salute.
The Battle of Hoover's Gap was fought June 23-25, 1863, as part of the Union attempt to capture Tullahoma and to advance on Chattanooga. Although not a large battle, such as the ones fought at approximately the same time at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, historians explain that the engagement at Hoover's Gap was important since it brought much of Tennessee behind Union lines.
The engagement is also the first time in the history of warfare that one side was armed with repeating rifles. The Union force, Wilder's Brigade of Mounted Infantry, carried seven-shot Spencer rifles. With the introduction of effective repeating weapons the events at Hoover's Gap marked a change in the history of warfare.
For more information email: contact@tcwpa.org
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